PARIS (AP) — French lawmakers agreed unanimously Wednesday to change the way they vote, opting to eliminate a balloting method that discriminated against a parliamentarian who uses a wheelchair because it required him to stand.
Sébastien Peytavie, the lawmaker who proposed the rule-change together with Yaël Braun-Pivet, the National Assembly president, said the discrimination he has faced during votes in parliament’s lower house reflects France’s larger failures toward people with disabilities.
Lawmakers voted Wednesday in favor of the proposal — with 183 for and none against— that now clears the way for Braun-Pivet to eliminate so-called “sitting and standing” balloting.
That’s when lawmakers either stay seated or stand up to show which way they are voting. It is one of four voting methods used by French lawmakers, depending on the circumstances. The others are a show of hands, with an electronic voting box or with paper ballots dropped into an urn.